Belated Christmas Crafts 2015 Part 1: Glittered Putz Houses

Sometimes I have to let go and accept that between chasing a toddler, house-hunting, making time for my husband, and dealing with the constant exhaustion of pregnancy, I just can't post as often as I'd like. Someday, there will be time for more making and more posting and more, well, everything. But, for now, this is the phase of life I'm in and instead of fighting it and becoming frustrated, I just need to accept that this will pass (all too soon, can't believe how quickly babies grow up!) and enjoy the moments I have rather than the ones in my head that don't come to pass.

So here I am, for the second year in a row, posting my Christmas projects late. Apologies, but I figured if you plan parts of your life out up to a year advance (as I do, see: babies!), you might want to add these to your crafting calendar for next year.

If you look up Putz houses, you can find plenty of free patterns online. I chose a few that I liked, printed out the templates, traced them onto empty cereal boxes I'd been saving (they're a great cardboard weight), painted them white, and then brushed them with glue before sprinkling on clear glitter from Michael's. For the "snow", I just stretched and tore up cotton balls and arranged them in drifts around the houses. I like to put a flickering LED candle inside the church (on the left), so it glows at night.

One caveat: remember to cut out the windows and doors *before* you assemble and glitter these! I only remembered to do this for the church. The others don't have any windows or doors, and I can't cut them out now without crushing them. (I'm going to redo them for next year.)

Pinspirations

I'm still getting together photos of my Christmas decor. So in the meantime, I thought I'd post some of my favorite recent pins from my Pinterest page! Click on the pictures to go to the pin/see more details.

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Vintage lockets from Bhldn, Anthropologie's sister site for wedding dresses and jewelry. You can also find lovely, well-priced old lockets on Ebay.

A photo of Derbyshire in England, taken by Rick Harrison. I'd love to go here some day! It looks serene and breathtakingly beautiful.

How to make your own wax seal from a button, by Offbeat Bride. Seals don't have to be solely for fancy wedding invitations, you could easily use this trick for valentines or just regular letters as well for an extra personal touch.

I've always been mesmerized by the colorful domes of St. Basil's in Moscow. Luckily, Paper Matrix has created a free pattern so you can weave your own "onion" domes out of paper. These could be really amazing cake toppers, don't you think? Silver and gold paper would turn them into very elegant accents for a wedding or winter wonderland-type cake.

From I Spy DIY, a really cute and easy way to jazz up a plain sweater. This would be great for kids, but could work for brave adults as well (I'm not sure I would have the stones to rock that many pom poms).

First of all, let's talk about this amazing shade of ginger. I'm so jealous. While also a fellow redhead, only my highlights get THAT light. The rest of the time, I'm very auburn or a dark red/chestnut mix. However, my favorite part is Sara Lynn Paige's easy Short Gibson tuck. I'm not one of those people who really "does" my hair (I never know what to do, you know?) and even *I* can master this. It's easy and looks great whether in a casual or formal setting. Two thumbs up.

I didn't watch the Golden Globes, but I *did* catch up on all the dresses afterwards. Lady Mary is look very modern and elegant here. I love the gold part at the top, the high neck, and the sleeves. Here's hoping someone makes a knock-off version for not-filthy-rich folks like me asap! (Photo from The Daily Mail in London.)

I also have a Valentine's Day board up, in case anyone else is already daydreaming about shades of red and pink and hearts everywhere!

Fall and Thanksgiving Tidbits

I thought I'd show you some fall and seasonal things I've been pinning on my Pinterest page! Just click on the pins to go to the page. First up is a brand-new print from my store - "Two Wise Old Owls"! It's listed in red, but I can also custom color it. You can find it and other brand-new prints here.

Next is this lovely brown paper table runner from Pottery Barn Kids. It looks perfect for keeping little ones occupied while Thanksgiving dinner is being made! You could even have them color or paint it in the morning and then use it for the Thanksgiving table later. That way, they'll feel like they've contributed to the meal and holiday as well!

These free printable veggie prints from Just Something I Made would make great Thanksgiving invites or place cards. You could leave them black and white or overlay them with vibrant colors. They'd make a great, fresh addition to the table.

Last is this paper tutorial from Better Homes and Gardens. While they turned these into flowers, I think they'd make great Tom Turkey tails instead. Then you could just add a big pom pom for the body, a smaller one for the head, a red yarn or felt wattle, and either googly eyes or painted-on ones. You could then scatter them down the middle of the table, or put one at every table setting. Simple and seasonal!

Please follow me on Pinterest if you like what you see : ) . I post lots of DIY ideas and I always love to see what my readers are pinning as well!

DIY Fall Leaf Garlands and Wreath for Fall and Thanksgiving

Would you believe me if I told you these colorful leaves were made out of coffee filters? Yup - that's the simple secret to their crinkly texture and brown undertones! I ran about 50 natural brown coffee filters under the tap and then spread them out flat to dry in single layers (if possible, if not, stack them in piles of two or three and rotate which ones are on top every half-hour or so) on cookie sheets around the kitchen. If you have a gas stove with pilots, putting the sheets over the burners helps speed up the process - just keep a careful eye on them! (Or maybe I'm just still wary of open flames - I grew up with electric ovens.)

Next, I made leaf stencils out of paper and used them to cut out leaves from the dried filters. This is the part that, to be honest, is kind of a pain in the butt. It's time-consuming and it can be difficult to get all the curves and corners, but it's worth it in the end! If you have a Cricut (sp?) or another die-cutter, you could give it a whirl instead of cutting each one out by hand. I made four stencils: two types of oak leaves, a maple leaf, and a fruit tree leaf. Cut as many as you think you will need - I think I got two or three big leaves out of each filter, and ended up with about 25 of the oaks and maple and 50 of the fruit tree (since they were smaller).

Then came the fun part: painting them! I used watercolors in shades of brown, red, orange, and gold. I tried to make some areas lighter and some darker, to imitate real leaves. I initially painted them after gluing them into garlands, but then I realized doing it the other way (paint each one first, then glue together) was probably much easier. If you do it the first way, you have to make sure you get under each leaf and sometimes the wet paint made them stick together in other places.

I glued the maple and oak leaves into garlands. You could mix them if you like, I just chose to use a single type for each. I used a glue stick and rotated the first one 45 degrees left from center, the second below it 45 degrees right from center (so 90 degrees from the first after), the third below it 45 degrees left from center (90 degrees from the second leaf), etc. You could use the same angle, or do them in a straight line. You could rotate them even more, too - just play around with them until you get something you like!

Close-up of the maple leaves that I painted bright red.

Close-up of the gold oak leaves - you can see where I missed a spot as I painted them post-gluing. Oops!

Once your garlands have dried, use them around the house for decorations! Here, I overlaid them on a table and then added a pumpkin and silver candles (DIY coming later in November) for a festive display.

You could also put the garlands up on the wall, hang them down a door or doorway, or string them along a mantle. Since they're not Halloween-ish at all, you can use them from the beginning of fall through Thanksgiving - they're very versatile!

To make your Thanksgiving table even more festive, you could run the garlands down the length of the table, add a silver vase of brown and white feathers (or mallard green ones) in the middle, and then add in small gourds, pumpkins, dark purple artichokes, pomegranates, bright red apples, or small silver dishes of nuts for extra pops of color.

Here's a close-up of the garlands overlapping.

Instead of candles, you could add fall lanterns as well. I made these out of mason jars, contact paper stencils, and etching cream. Then I placed an LED light inside. These lanterns will be in the next DIY post!...

I turned the fruit tree leaves into a wreath. Storage space is at a premium in our city apartment, so I wanted fall decor that would store flat to maximize space. This is bright and perfect for the season but will take up barely any space in the closet come Christmas - perfect! I painted the leaves just like the other ones, then arranged them in layers of three around a wreath form. I made my own out of cardboard using a big plate for the outer edge and smaller one for the cut-out part in the middle, but you could use one from a craft store. I just didn't have one handy (and again, I wanted something more 2D). I curled some of the leaves up using a pencil to give the wreath a little more dimension, and then added a bow of gold ribbon.

Close-up of the wreath.

Here are three of the stencils I used (the fruit tree one seems to have gone missing, but it's easy to recreate). You may use these for your own projects (resize them when you print them to suit your project) but please don't resell them or use them for commercial projects without written permission from me. Thanks!